Attacks may derail Syria talks

At least 32 were killed; opposition suggests an inside job

GENEVA — A deadly terrorist attack in central Syria on Saturday threatened to thwart efforts to wrest a political solution at peace talks in Geneva, with the U.N. mediator decrying “spoilers” who try to derail efforts to end the country’s disastrous six-year war.

The government’s envoy demanded a firm condemnation from all opposition groups of the synchronized attacks by insurgents on security offices in Homs that left dozens dead, while the opposition retorted that it has long denounced terrorism — even suggesting it may have been an inside job.

“Any party that refuses to condemn these attacks today, we will consider that party to be an accomplice of terrorism,” Syria’s U.N. ambassador, Bashar al-Ja’afari, told reporters after meeting U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura on the third day of renewed peace talks, with the sides meeting separately with him so far.

The talks are the first under U.N. mediation in nearly 10 months and build on a fragile, repeatedly violated cease-fire that was wrested by Russia and Turkey. Moscow has been a powerful military and political backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government and Turkey has been a supporter of key rebel groups. They also come after Syria’s Russia and Iran-backed troops regained control of the key northern city of Aleppo in December.

Al-Ja’afari stopped short of suspending the government’s participation outright, but said condemnation of the attacks was a “test” for the fragmented opposition. He said his side would return to meet with the U.N. envoy again on Tuesday.

An al-Qaida-linked group, known now as the Levant Liberation Committee, claimed responsibility for the twin attacks against government security offices in Homs, killing at least 32, including a senior officer of the feared Military Intelligence Services.

Al-Ja’afari described the attack as a bid by states sponsoring terrorism to derail the talks. He singled out Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the two main backers of an array of opposition groups, as states lending support to terrorist groups.

Syria’s top opposition delegates said they condemned terrorism, but not specifically the Homs attack, all but suggesting it may have been carried out by Assad’s own supporters.

Nasr al-Hariri, head of the main opposition negotiating team, condemned terrorism by the so-called Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s affiliates, but said that the Damascus government was the primary “sponsor of terrorism.”